The school feeding programme (SFP) and day-care
centre programme (DCCP) in Chile are administered by the National
Board of School Assistance and Scholarships, whose main objective
is to provide social and financial assistance to low-income
preschool and school-age children. In the case of the DCCP, these
benefits are linked to health, nutrition, and development. In the
case of the SFP, they are linked to the concept of academic
performance, which is defined as the adequate use of the child's
capabilities in order to avoid repeating grades and leaving
school [9].

The National Board of School Assistance and
Scholarships was created in 1964 as an autonomous body with a
central board in Santiago and with regional corporations.
Initially, the organization grew rapidly in physical
infrastructure and administration instead of employing funds to
provide the benefits for which it was created. In fact, until
1976 around 40% of the budget was spent on programme
administration. In 1979 the responsibility for providing and
distributing food rations was handed over to the private sector,
resulting in a drastic reduction of administrative costs, which
now represent only 4.5% of the budget [10]. The National Board's
function is to oversee the SFP, the DCCP, and the private
industries involved by carrying out technical and administrative
checks.

Characteristics

The SFP concentrates its action on low-income
schoolchildren, from 6 to 14 years of age, attending public and
subsidized private schools. The objective is to improve academic
performance through the provision of free food. This assistance
consists of lunch and breakfast or an afternoon snack at the
school and is distributed during approximately 170 school days
per year. (Most of the beneficiaries receive either breakfast and
lunch, or lunch and an afternoon snack, depending on their school
time schedule.) Currently, the system operates in 6,782 schools
throughout the country. In 1988 it distributed 522, 000
breakfasts and 528,000 lunches, and 28,600 students received
additional home-based food assistance.

Since 1985 the SFP has also operated during the
summer in approximately 1,138 schools, delivering lunch rations
and a snack. In 1986, 175,000 children received these additional
benefits for a period of 40 days.

The SFP provides 800 calories per person per
day, of which 38% is distributed as breakfast and 62% as lunch.
In terms of protein, it provides 15 to 20 g per person per day,
of which half must be of animal origin. These rations correspond
to approximately 40% of the daily calorie and protein
requirements of a 10-year-old child according to FAO/WHO/UNU 1985
recommendations.

Table 4 shows the number of rations delivered
by the SFP since 1965. Between 1967 and 1974 the number of
breakfasts distributed was 50% higher than for 1975-1988. The
annual number of lunch rations distributed from 1975 to 1986 was
30% lower than from 1965 to 1974. This decrease was due to budget
constraints, particularly during the recessionary periods of
1975-1976 and 1982-1984. Despite that, the scholarships for food
assistance in students' homes have increased by over 100% since
1974.

TABLE 4. Average number of rations
delivered per day by the SFP, and students' homes assisted,
1965-1988

School rations (thousands)

Breakfast

Lunch

Homes assisteda

1965

655.3

230.8

_

1966

838.8

357.2

_

1967

1,055.5

528.7

_

1968

1,174.4

576.8

_

1969

1,180.0

580.0

_

1970

1,301.2

619.2

2,390

1971

1,408.4

653.6

3,528

1972

1,536.6

715.9

4,900

1973

1,445.6

674.3

6,101

1974

1,338.5

663.2

8,141

1975

745.7

593.6

10,028

1976

769.8

361.0

18,112

1977

1,055.2

296.3

18,235

1978

1,054.6

307.6

19,871

1979

759.4

294.5

25,573

1980

759.9

295.0

25,409

1981

759.1

295.0

25 115

1982

689.7

332.9

21 646

1983

673.3

322.9

21,743

1984

674.6

424.8

20,417

1985

694.0

599.9

20,114

1986

647.8

528.8

23,064

1987

528.0

490.0

27,726

1988

522.0

528.0

28,600

Source: National Board of School
Assistance and Scholarships.
a. Each student receives four meals per day.

Information provided by ODEPLAN [7], based on a
national representative sample of 20,000 homes, showed that the
coverage of the SFP programme at the national level was 34.9% in
1985. In the urban sector 27.8% of the schoolchildren enrolled
received this assistance, with 92.3% of them belonging to the
three lowest income quintiles. The corresponding proportions in
the rural sector were 57% and 77.7% respectively (table 5).
Unofficial estimates for 1987 indicate that the coverage of this
programme declined to 22% of children in primary schools.

Targeting criteria

The criteria and process for selecting
potential beneficiaries have varied over the years. From 1980 to
1983 they were determined according to the socioeconomic level of
the household, measured by an integrated indicator that included
data on housing, employment, education, and income, as well as
the child's need for food, as indicated by the teacher. Since
1984, the nutrition status of each child has been included as a
criterion for allocating benefits. Educational indicators, such
as school-grade repetition, were added in 1985.

Since 1985, schools have been first ranked
according to characteristics such as average nutrition status and
academic performance, the teacher's perception of students' need,
and parents' level of education. Resources are then given to each
municipality, which is responsible for their distribution in
accordance with the criteria.

No formal evaluation of the programme's impact
has been carried out so far. Nevertheless, given adherence to the
selection process, it can be argued that it is reaching mostly
children of low-income households.

TABLE 5. Urban and rural coverage of
the SFP by income quintile, 1985

Quintile

Urban

Rural

Beneficiaries

Non-benef Cartes

Beneficiaries

Non-benef Cartes

N

%

N

%

N

%

N

%

1

185,591

42

256,478

58

87,169

61

55,777

39

2

104,900

29

254,464

71

56,090

57

41,959

43

3

51,461

21

195,953

79

48,296

53

42,467

47

4

19,807

11

156,221

89

31,925

54

26,796

46

5

8,440

8

99,200

92

22,847

55

18,793

45

Total

370,199

28

962,316

72

246,327

57

185,792

43

Source: Ref. 11.
Beneficiaries were children receiving at least breakfast, lunch,
an afternoon snack, or any combination of these.
Non-beneficiaries were those who did not receive any free food at
scool.

The day-care centre programme (DCCP) was
created in 1970 as an autonomous corporation with the objectives
of planning, coordinating, promoting, stimulating, and
supervising care given to low-income children from birth to 5
years of age attending day-care centres under its authority.
These centres operate nine hours daily from Monday to Friday in
low-income areas where problems of undernutrition, cultural
deprivation, and crowding occur [12].

The main objective of the DCCP is to provide
comprehensive care to children of low-income families, giving
priority of enrolment to undernourished children or those at
nutritional risk. In addition to on-site feeding, the programme
includes activities to stimulate motor and psychosocial
development that are carried out by university-trained nursery
teachers and assistants. Furthermore, an important objective of
the programme is to stimulate both community participation
through educational activities and direct participation in
child-care activities by means of an organized parents' centre
[13].

TABLE 6. Average nutritional
contribution of rations provided by the DCCP

Protein
(g)

Lipids
(g)

Energy
(kcal)

Breakfast

13

4

255

Lunch

17

18

450

Afternoon
snack

13

4

255

Source: Ref. 14.

Characteristics of the on-site food
component

At present, the programme provides 80% of the
daily calorie recommendations for healthy children, and 150
additional calories to those at biomedical risk. The average
nutritional contribution of breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snack
is shown in table 6. The adequacy of these diets according to
FAD/WHO recommendations varies from 55% to 74% of calorie
requirements, which is slightly below programme objectives, and
from 145% to 186% of protein requirements. The degree of adequacy
declines as the age of the beneficiary increases [14].

Figure 1 illustrates the coverage of the DCCP
since 1978. A rapid increase can be observed between 1984, when
46,500 children received benefits in 368 centres, and 1988, when
57,135 children in 421 centres received benefits.

Table 7 shows the age distribution of preschool
children attending the DCCP and programme coverage with respect
to total enrolment in public and private institutions. Increased
coverage between 1985 and 1987 is observed for preschoolers from
2 to 5 years of age, whereas the number under 2 years of age
receiving benefits remained constant. In 1988 a total of 55,136
children were enrolled in the DCCP; this figure accounted for 36%
of children in extreme poverty. When non-governmental
institutions giving comprehensive care (food and child
development) to preschoolers are included, this proportion
increases to 77.6%.

Because the DCCP is the most expensive of the
three main distribution programmes in per capita terms, a new
modality of day-care centres, CADEL, was implemented in 1987,
covering approximately 10,000 preschool-age children. Under this
new programme, paraprofessional personnel have replaced
university-trained professionals. Community participation has
become an integral feature, and less sophisticated educational
materials are being used. The objective is to reduce costs so as
to expand coverage.

TABLE 7. Distribution of children
participating in the DCCP, 1985-1988

Infants
(0-2 years)

Preschoolers
(2-5 years)

% of
enrolmenta

1985

4,767

49,201

16.1

1986

4,249

51,660

_

1987

4,272

54,102

_

1988

4,216

52,992

_

Source: Secretaría de Desarrollo y
Asistencia Social
a. Percentage of total enrolment in public and private
institutions.

Evaluation

Since restoring undernourished children is the
main objective of the DCCP, an evaluation of changes in the
nutrition status of 464 children attending 20 DCCP centres in
Santiago was carried out [15]. The results showed considerable
improvement. When they were initially enrolled in the programme,
30.6% of the children were deficient in weight, 45.7% in height,
and 11.2% in weight for height. After 10 months of attendance,
their nutrition status had improved, with the number with
deficient weight declining by 26% and the number with deficient
weight for height by 65%. The study also included measurements of
psychological and intellectual performance, both of which
exhibited significant improvement; 67% of the children initially
experiencing deficits recovered partially or totally in terms of
intellectual capacity.

Table 8 shows the annual expenditures on the
three programmes from 1974 to 1988. Except for expenditures on
the DCCP, which increased rapidly until 1975, total outlays have
fluctuated without exhibiting a long-run increasing trend.
Nevertheless, because of targeting efforts, the benefits are
mainly reaching the poor, with the consequent reduced rates in
undernutrition and infant mortality shown earlier.

Figures for actual annual expenditures,
deflated by the consumer price index (yearly averages, National
Institute of Statistics), then converted to US dollars using the
average exchnage rate for 1987

The cost of the three programmes per
beneficiary per year varies as follows: US$38.1 for CFP, US$62.8
for SFP, and US$300 for the DCCP. (Only the value of the food and
its transportation to the health centres are counted as costs of
the CFP; other costs, such as labour and physical infrastructure,
are counted as health-care system costs. In the case of the SFP
and the DCCP, all direct costs, including the value of the food,
transportation, distribution, and handling, are included.)
Accordingly, the costs per calorie distributed are US$0.029,
US$0.044, and US$0.15 respectively (table 9). Therefore, CFP is
the least costly of the programmes in terms of providing
calories. It must be remembered, however, that calorie intake is
only one of the dimensions of nutrition status, and each of these
programmes has other integrated aspects: the health component in
the CFP, academic performance of children in the SFP, and
psychosocial child development in the DCCP.

These programmes have all been instrumental in
improving the health and nutrition status of mothers, infants,
and children of low-income households. They have also been
important in countering the negative effects of economic cycles
on the nutrition situation of the poor.

TABLE 9. Cost per beneficiary and per
calorie of supplementary feeding programmes in Chile, 1986

Total
annual cost (millions of USS)

Total
kcal distributed eneficianes (millions)

Beneficiaries
(thousands)

Cost
per beneficiary per year (US$)

Cost
per kcal (US cents)

Kcalper
beneficiary per day

CFP

39.7

135,457

1,042.0

38.1

0.0293

130.2

SFP

35.0

80,244

557.3

62.8

0.0436

394.0

DCCP

16.0

10,571

55.9

300.0

0.1510

58.0

Source: Elaborated by authors on the
basis of information from the Ministry of Health